Team realise eight-year journey with Tour de France wildcard invitation
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2015 MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung team kit(Image credit: MTN-Qhubeka/Jens Herrndorff )
MTN Qhubeka head to the start(Image credit: Sadhbh O'Shea)
Jim Songezo of MTN - Qhubeka leads the chase(Image credit: Mark Gunter)
Louis Meintjes (MTN-Qhubeka)(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
MTN - Qhubeka leading the peloton on an unpaved descent(Image credit: Sonoko Tanaka)
Theo Bos (MTN-Qhubkea) on the Muur(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Best young rider Louis Meintjes (MTN-Qhubeka)(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Since their inception in 2007, the MTN-Qhubeka team have focused on becoming the first African team at the Tour de France, and that dream was realised this year when the Pro Continental team received a wildcard invitation to the French Grand Tour.
"For us and across South Africa and Africa, when people talk about cycling, they talk about the Tour de France," says Douglas Ryder, MTN-Qhubeka's team principal. "It's as if there is no other race. They don't understand that as a team we race 200 race days to prepare and get ready and get strong enough to be able to compete in a Grand Tour like the Tour de France."
The team are hoping that participation and success in the world's biggest bicycle race will aspire more interest in the sport among Africans, eventually producing more homegrown talent.
"Having a team like ours, with a uniquely different story and riders from all over the African continent, we know that it will just raise the profile and it will kick the door open for African cyclists into the future," Ryder says.
